Net neutrality has just won a major victory thanks to a recent federal decision against the injunction to block the California Internet Consumer Protection and Net Neutrality Act of 2018. The bill, also known as SB-822, has was first drafted in 2018 after the Trump administration rolled back net neutrality protections a year earlier. It was initially blocked by the Justice Department, which dropped the trial this month, removing a major hurdle to pass the bill. This recent decision was another.
The move is a blow to some of the top 5G carriers and big telecom companies like AT&T, Comcast and Verizon, all of which have been pushing against net neutrality for years, saying the federal government has blocked states from enacting their laws. own net neutrality laws. According to Barbara van Schewick, a Stanford law professor involved in the case, the judge did not buy into their argument.
The judge concluded that the law has a solid legal foundation and that ISPs who try to overturn it are unlikely to prevail. The judge concluded, as I have long argued, that an agency that says it doesn’t have the power to regulate, it doesn’t have the power to tell others it can’t regulate.
Judge John Mendez, who presided over the case, reportedly took a moment to correlate the current state of net neutrality with the impact of the recent storms that ravaged Texas and left many people without power.
As for the public interest, during the hearing, the judge learned a lesson from the winter storms in Texas this month. “The government has decided to back down on the energy companies… It has not served the public well.”
– Eriq Gardner (@eriqgardner) February 23, 2021
Acting FCC President Jessica Rosenworcel has long championed Net Neutrality during her years as FCC Commissioner. She also reacted to the decision, calling it “big news for an open Internet policy”.
When the FCC, despite my objection, rescinded its #netneutrality policies, states like California sought to fill the void with their own laws. Tonight a California court ruled state law can come into effect. This is great news for the #openinternet policy.
– Jessica Rosenworcel (@JRosenworcel) February 24, 2021
The bill prevents Internet service providers (ISPs) from engaging in things like paid prioritization, removing certain content from users’ data allowance in exchange for monetary gain, not disclosing accurately network management and performance, and other anti-consumer acts.
The bill’s author, Senator Scott Wiener, celebrated the moment as a “great victory for open access to the Internet”.
The Internet is at the heart of modern life. We should all be able to decide for ourselves where we go on the Internet and how we access information. We cannot allow big business to make these decisions for us.
The telecommunications association behind the lawsuit argued that a state-by-state approach would not work, saying it “would confuse consumers and discourage innovation, as would the importance of broadband. for all has never been so obvious, ”further asserting that it should be up to Congress to define the mandate. Until that happens, California may soon begin to enforce its own law within its state borders, opening the door for other states to follow suit.
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